December Newsletter

Greetings sisters & brothers, and my deep apologies for such an overdue message!

I suppose that it is this time of year, when we pause (hopefully!) long enough from our hectic schedules to reflect upon the birth of the Christ child, and what that historic event means for us, that causes me to want to reach out to you all with the good news of Sugar Grove.

What a miraculous year we have undergone! God’s presence has certainly been felt as we have submitted our wills to His and attempted to obey His direction for our lives. We have been blessed with the return of families like the Shelton’s, an increase in the number of youth who are bringing a renewed sense of energy and excitement, new births and baptisms, new members joining our ranks, and an increased focus on serving our community.

When I came to Sugar Grove, I made the public statement that I didn’t have time to mess around with someplace that wanted to “play” church; I wanted to be somewhere that is serious about being the church. My gosh – you have really taken me at my word!

I have to make a confession to you – before I came to Sugar Grove, I was becoming dissatisfied with the church. The modern church had, over the last 10-15 years, resorted to playing to the consumerist desires of the populace. Building bigger buildings, making worship a theatrical event, implementing the latest “programs”, and delivering a “me”-centric type of message, all designed to give people a great show on Sunday morning and then send them home until next week. We call this type of church “attractional”, which means they build their purpose around attracting more and larger number of members.

If you are familiar with this type of church, then you have heard the name Willow Creek. One of the country’s largest mega-churches, Willow Creek conducted a survey of their members in 2007 and learned a startling fact. Despite their size (average weekly attendance of 23,000), a large majority considered themselves spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth, and huge portions of these groups were considering leaving because of it (Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2008).

What this tells me is that it takes more than large buildings, numerous programs and entertainment to develop true disciples of Christ. It takes sacrifice, discipline, and yes, even pain, to fully become the disciple God created us to be. We have to be intentional about being “missional” instead of “attractional” if we want to be true followers of Christ.

Because of this, we will be seriously reviewing all of our programs and ministries in 2009 and bringing each of them into alignment with the following objectives:
• We will focus more on the message of Gospels than on the Epistles. The
purpose of the Gospels was to reveal God’s Kingdom here on earth during our
lifetimes and our roles in seeing that “the blind receive sight and the lame
walk. Those who have leprosy are cleansed. The dead are raised and the good
news of the Lord is proclaimed.” The Epistles, on the other hand, dealt with
life after death.
• We will advance the gospel by demonstration and not simply proclamation.
• Our goal of evangelism will be to grow “the” church rather than just “our” church.
• We will partner with other local churches, regardless of denomination, as the essential means of accomplishing our mission.

For some of our current programs, this will result in a radical shift in the way we “do” church. For other programs, it will merely be an extension of what we are already doing.

Two examples of missional work that we entered into in 2008 will continue to be keys to our spiritual development in 2009. In continuing with our desire to eliminate hunger in the world, we will focus heavily on our Angel Food Ministry and our partnership with Katosi UMC in Uganda.

Each month, Sugar Grove supplies food packages to area families through the Angel Food Ministry. This wonderful ministry is a God-send during these tough economic times, and allows families to stretch their food budgets. The food is all first-rate quality food. No second hands or dented overstock. And there are no income restrictions or purchase limitations. A $30 food box contains enough nutritional food to feed a family of four for 3 weeks. This ministry affords us the opportunity to combat hunger in our local community. If you know of a family that would benefit from this assistance, or wish to participate yourself, please contact Stella Oliver or Virgina Duff.

Our developing partnership with Katosi UMC in Africa will give us an opportunity to combat hunger on a global scale. Stephanie & I will be traveling to Uganda in the spring of 2009 to personally meet with the pastor and his community to see firsthand what their situation is. We will also be meeting with local authorities and representatives from international aid organizations to begin laying the groundwork for an agricultural training program, which will teach local farmers advanced farming techniques and sustainable crop production. This program will eventually generate a livelihood for the community of Katosi, which in turn will bring greater educational opportunities, improved health care and better living conditions. This is how a small country church from Butler County will “give sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed and the good news to the poor”! Our trip in May will be the first of many trips for members of Sugar Grove to go on.

God-sized dreams to be sure, but Sugar Grove is definitely a God-sized church! Come experience the transformation, won’t you? Also be sure to check out our blog at www.sugargrovemethodist.blogspot.com!

Have a very Merry Christ-mas!

Kevin

Important dates!
Sunday, December 21st – Youth Christmas Play “Mr. Wilson Finds Christmas” 6 pm
Wednesday, December 24th – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service – 7 pm